Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the runes. Their eerie glow was swiftly growing brighter and brighter, drowning the chamber in a ghostly light. Slowly, a deep frown appeared on his face.

Then, suddenly, his eyes widened.

"Crap!"

But it was already too late. The runes shimmered, and in the next moment, he felt his reserve of shadow essence plunging. It was as though something was draining the essence out of his soul with terrifying speed.

At the same time, the range of shadow essence diminished even further, becoming limited by the size of the cage. The gloomy shadow recoiled, trying to get away from the shining runes.

Sunny hurriedly tried to summon the Cruel Sight, but he was a second too slow. Before the spear could form itself from the sparks of light, his essence ran dry, and it disintegrated before assuming a physical form.

"...Damnation!"

He looked helplessly at the bars of the cage and clenched his fists.

This was indeed a jail cell built to contain Awakened. Without shadow essence, he wouldn't be able to use Shadow Step to escape. More than that, he couldn't summon Memories anymore — manifesting them into reality demanded essence, as well, even if it was a tiny amount.

The same went for Echoes… and even Shadows.

He also felt weak, and was only going to grow weaker in the coming hours — without essence circulating through his body, Sunny's strength was vastly diminished.

...Whoever created this damned cage really knew what they were doing.

With a resentful snarl, Sunny turned around and allowed himself to slide down to the center of the dome, where Cassie stood with a lost expression on her pale, delicate face.

Raising one hand awkwardly, she tentatively moved it through the air around her and whispered:

"...I am blind again."

Sunny frowned, stared at her for a moment, and then turned away.

"You were always blind."

Of course, he knew what Cassie meant — without soul essence, the Aspect Ability that allowed her to perceive the world from several seconds in the future was gone, too. It wasn't exactly sight, but something that had replaced being able to see to her.

words might have been cruel, but Sunny

locked in a cage, powerless to escape… that was his worst

had no one but himself to blame for ending up that

sat down, lowered his head,

'Curse him…'

cathedral shook

for a

have been the Gateway. They…

Sunny closed his eyes.

guess you

altar that was now laying somewhere in the depths of the

knife, to begin with? Or was it just a lie Mordret had

had he

groan. He

so careful not to trust the mysterious voice after hearing it for the first time. But Mordret had been so helpful, and had provided him with so much valuable information that

there had been the smallest hint that Mordret wanted something from him, he

him like a

had understood perfectly just how untrusting Sunny was, and went with the lightest of approaches. Knowing that any pressure would scare his paranoid mark off, Mordret had simply

his prey to

Sunny shuddered.

how much has

willing to bet that there had never even been a need for Mordret to wait days between their conversations. All of

am such

had he allowed himself to be fooled so

Sunny's face, and

the truth! Like a masterful liar, Mordret had mixed just enough of

"Oh, the irony..."

asked, her voice

exactly

a bitter chuckle and answered in a dark

you know

answer, and after some more time